Keep You Safe
by Olive Tree Hugger
Summary: "But he wasn't sorry. He was afraid. He couldn't protect them forever, could he?" Chase Young's origin story, sad!


By: Olive Tree Hugger

Song Used: Safe and Sound by Taylor Swift ft. The Civil Wars

"I remember tears streaming down you're face when I said I'll never let you go."

Cheng Young clutched his sisters close as the violence outside escalated. Screams, shouts and crashes filled his ears. He could hear the agonizing sound of murder outside their window. Was it his neighbor? His father?

It was all so loud, he couldn't even hear Mai Ling's sobs, and she was crouching next to him.

She tried to shift her position, but Cheng snapped,

"Bu`do`ng!" And tightened his grip.

Mai Ling curled into a little ball, crying harder. Cheng wasn't sorry, though. He was scared. He couldn't protect them forever, could he?

"When all those shadows almost killed your light."

Cheng heard a loud snap, when suddenly, a tree acquainted itself with the roof of their home. It crashed, with a crunching THUD, through the ceiling, sending bits of hay and wood everywhere.

Cheng had a very sharp branch hanging just a few centimeters from his face. Someone sent that tree flying, no way a small tree like that could do so much damage on its own. He sensed dark magic. Heylin magic.

Cheng heard his sister Kai Lan screeching his name. He looked down. The tree branches had stabbed her in the abdomen and pinned her down.

He let go of Mai and started tearing the branches away from his sister. She was bleeding, profusely. The poor child had never seen a blood flow like that. She wailed,

"Help me, Cheng!"

He dug through the branches. He remembered his mother's final words to him, "Keep your sisters safe, Cheng! Anranwuyang."

"I remember you said, 'Don't leave me alone.'"

Kai Lan was now unable to move her legs. Cheng realized they couldn't stay in the house. They would be killed. Crushed by fallen trees or otherwise. He stood up, watching his sister's reaction. She cried, "Don't leave me here! Jiu jiu wu!"

He picked Kai Lan up in his arms. He instructed Mai Ling, who'd vomited from the fear, to grab onto his arm and never let go.

"But all that's dead and gone and passed, tonight. Tonight."

Cheng ran as fast as he could, keeping in mind Mai behind him. He now fully witnessed the horrors of war in front of him. Fires licked at the sky, burning endlessly the homes which he'd passed by many times before. He watched in horror as an elderly man, a sage, ran out of hut, screaming, as a ball of fire devoured him.

Blood spattered the ground. Mangled corpses bathed in pools of it. The sky was grey with smoke. Women dropped their children from fear and angst as they watched the Heylin warriors ride through their village, lopping off heads and snatching up young girls.

Cheng balanced Kai Lan on one arm and grabbed Mai's little arm forcefully and ran even faster. Ran for his life, his sisters', ran until he just couldn't run anymore.

"Just close your eyes, the sun is going down. You'll be all right. No one can hurt you now."

The three siblings found themselves in a forest. It was relatively untouched by the people of his village. The sounds coming from his village were now faint. He looked down at his sisters. Kai Lan had passed out long ago. The eight year old had lost some blood and was scared out of her wits. Mai Ling was trudging with her eyes closed. A faint whimper escaped her lips.

"Wo buneng."

It was enough to make him stop.

Cheng found a very large oak tree where the leaves provided much shade and shielded them from the eyes of outsiders. He looked up at the sky one more time. It was blood red now. Sunset.

They would camp here, tonight.

"Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."

Cheng lay his sisters to sleep. He'd fed them some roots growing from the moist ground. He'd dug up muddy water, and filtered it as best he could with his own shirt.

Fed and safe, he lay next to his sisters. He was no longer terrified. Just anticipating the sun.

"Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire."

Cheng woke up feeling gross. Sweaty. Suddenly, a stench filled his nose. It was sickly sweet. Sitting up, he realized it wasn't sweat. He looked down and gagged. He was sitting in a pool of fresh blood. He thought, "Kai Lan!" And looked to his right. There was Kai Lan, pale and drained. Barely breathing.

He tore off her dress and saw her wounds had opened.

Panic rose in his heart. Fear seized him for a couple of seconds.

Then Mai was screaming as the tree they lay under started to burn. The fire ate up the leaves and their protection.

They had to move, NOW. He picked Kai Lan up as he did before and made Mai Ling latch onto him. He saw the fire open up narrowly, letting them escape.

Cheng didn't think for a second how impossible that was.

"The war outside our door keeps raging on."

He heard evil laughter. Horse hooves smacking the ground. The Heylin warriors were following them. Had they set the forest on fire? The once green mass of trees was now a simmering, charred wasteland. A few trees still flamed.

What felt like days later, although it were only a few hours, Cheng and Mai reached sanctuary. Until then, they fled blindly. Their legs were moving, carrying them away from the carnage and evil and death, but their minds stopped functioning. They crossed streams and rivers, stretches of bare dirt roads and rocky hills. Cheng hadn't realized until they'd reached the Xiaolin Temple that little Kai Lan had died in his arms.

"Hold on, to this, lullaby. Even when the music's gone. Gone."

When they arrived at the Temple, the Xiaolin monks wrapped Cheng and Mai Ling in thin blankets made of horse hair. They fed them vegetable stew. They read scrolls and scrolls of prayers over the dead sister, before burying her in the courtyard of the old building.

Cheng could not cry. Instead, he sang a soft lullaby his mother sang to him as a boy. He sang to Mai, who, after hours of sobbing, fell into a comatose sleep.

Cheng continued to sing quietly to himself. He tried to remember the kindly, loving face of his mother. The soft black hair with one silver-white streak across the side. The calloused, hardworking hands stroking his face when he was scared. The soothing and raspy voice she sang to him with. Where was she? He missed her terribly.

But no such answer came. He cursed the gods, Heylin and monks alike.

With that final thought, Cheng drifted into an uneasy sleep. A wolf howled mournfully outside the window.

"Just close your eyes. The sun is going down. You'll be alright. No one can hurt you now."A tall, muscular man in a deep orange robe appeared before Cheng, shaking him awake.

Cheng stared up at him with sleepy eyes.

"I am Master Monk Guan." He said. "Are you from the Tungshao village?"

Cheng's ears perked at the sound of his village's name. "Shi." He whispered.

"Your village has been completely destroyed by the Heylin. No survivors were found. Wo hen baoqian."

Cheng's heart sunk. No word of his mother.

"Young man, if you wish to stay here, we will gladly take you in and train you in the ways of the Xiaolin. We see great potential in you. Tell me...can you manipulate fire?"

Cheng only raised an eyebrow.

Guan continued, "We sense this power within you, Cheng. You hold a great amount of capability in your hands. You must be the Dragon of Fire!"

The boy felt a chill run up his spine. He suddenly remembered the fire in the forest. It moved for him...or had he moved it? It all made sense. Had he caused the fire too?

"I think...I can make fire move." He whispered, barely audible for anyone to hear.

"Yes," Guan replied, "The Dragon of Fire can bend and manipulate fire, and with enough practice...can summon it at will. We can utilize that power."

Cheng stared blankly ahead of him, absolutely stunned.

Guan sighed, "Your sister, however-"

"Mai Ling!" Cheng almost shouted. He looked around, panicked. "Where is she?"

Guan answered calmly. "She is alright. Very somber, however. She is in the courtyard, picking flowers."

Cheng winced when he heard 'courtyard'. Only yesterday had they buried Kai Lan there.

Guan nodded, "My condolences, I will leave you to make your decision. But know that your sister cannot stay here long. The Temple is for male warriors only. She will have to leave. If you can think of any relatives or friends in other villages, we could locate them and place her in their care."

Cheng clenched his eyes shut. This was too much.

Guan nodded solemnly, understanding. He turned around and walked away.

"Come morning light, you and I'll be safe and sound."

Cheng made his choice. He approached the monks hours later, declaring his desire to train as a Xiaolin monk.

"Just close your eyes."

He watched Master Monk Guan and another monk named Dashi ride off in a small carriage with Mai Ling, on their way to Uncle Fa's distant home. Mai stared at him. But Cheng eyed the ground. He was ashamed to send her off like that. But what else could he do?

"You'll be alright."

Spring. Three years passed. Cheng had grown quite a lot in his time at the temple. His shoulders broadened. His muscles were larger and stronger. His hair longer and thicker. He was more mentally mature as well. He was now nineteen, but he had the mind of a twenty-five year old.

Secretly, he crept into the courtyard. He picked stray blossoms from the ground and scattered them across Kai Lan's grave.

He whispered something to the gravestone, hoping she'd hear him.

"Come morning light."

He knew he'd failed his family. His parents were gone, his sisters were gone. It was only him in the world, now. But he would make this right. He would fight the Heylin. He would defeat them and reclaim the Young family's honor.

Until... a small creature, a bean, claimed he could make Cheng stronger. Much more able to redeem himself. All he needed was his soul.

But Cheng knew it was wrong. He was making a lifelong deal with a Heylin master.

Maybe it was the guilt, of watching his sister leave with pleading eyes. Him never returning her gaze, that made him do it.

Maybe it was the despair of losing everyone he loved, that made him do it.

Maybe it was the shame of not being able to protect the people he loved, that made him do it.

"You and I'll be safe and sound. "

Either way, as the Lao Ming Long soup poured into his throat, Cheng slowly forgot his sorrow and desperation.

As the seering pain ripped through him like fire, Cheng's emotions melted along with his heart.

As his vision turned white, Cheng no longer saw the terrible images from the village.

As the pain subsided, so did Cheng's humanity.

As the final moments of mortality left him, so did the desire to protect.

Cheng was a monster now. A dragon in a human body. He was the immortal Prince of Darkness.

He was Chase Young.

Translations:

Budong: Don't move!

Anranwuyang: Safe and sound.

Jiu jiu wo: Help me.

Wu buneng: I can't...

Shi: Yes.

Wo hen baoqian: I'm sorry.


End file.
